The Flight of Crowe
by Robrecht
Summary: This is a fanfic about a Youcmou-jin named Crowe and his 'Icer' mentor Fridge. It's set in the DBZ universe however the FoC cast will not meet the Z-fighters until later. Please R+R. Chapter 6 is now up.
1. Intro

Before the actual story starts I have a few things to say about the Flight of Crowe:

The Flight of Crowe originally started as nothing more than a little background story for Crowe, a character I submitted for 'Dragonball NK' a fanfic which I previously believed to be dieing, but in reality it's al the way up to chapter 22 now (a link to the forum that has all of them is this)  
Crowe, one of two entries, was however not accepted. So then I had a character with a very short but, in my opinion, very promising history which I decided to expand upon, and so FotC was born. Besides telling the story of Crowe, FoC also delves into certain other aspects of The DB/DBz universe, like the Planettraders, other changelings ('non-icers') and the other galaxies (DBZ = North Galaxy, FotC = East + South Galaxy, recovered from Brolly)

Here's a list of things that are more or less special about FoC (though other Fanfics also have some these things):

Youcmou-jin:

One thing that sets FotC apart from most DBZ fanfics is the fact that it's main character (Crowe) is not a Saiya-jin, but rather a Youcmou-jin. The Youcmou-jin are a new race I myself made up. The name stems from the Japanese words 'Moucyou' (bird) and Jin (people) however I jumbled the syllables of Moucyou much the same way Akira Torijama jumble Yasai (vegetable) and Furutsu (fruit) to make Saiya and Tsufuru.  
Youcmou-jin have hollow bones, nails like the ends of bird's claws, feet with three toes (two in front and one in the back, pressed against the heels so they can still wear 'normal' boots), sharp teeth (no fangs), hawk-like noses (not actual beaks, it's a type of nose). Most are covered in tribal-style tattoos.   
Youcmou-jin are very fast and very powerful Ki-users, however they are physically weak. In other words: A Youcmou-jin of PL 1,000,000 hits with approximately the same strength as Mister Satan, however a Youcmou-jin of PL 100 could pull off a Ki-blast of the same strength as Goku at PL 5,000 and has the same speed.

Youchushi-jin:

This is basically the Youcmou-jin equivalent of SSJ, however there are also several significant differences. Youchushi-jin (Hushicyou = phoenix bird) have completely blue flames in their eye sockets (their eyes are literally on fire, like the eyes of a Starcraft Archon), their hair burns with a yellow and orange flame, their talons (finger nails) grow longer and they get fangs. Despite the large amount of fire involved in this form, the Youchushi-jin does not burn up (yet (higher forms do run this risk)), also the fire cannot be put out by water.

'GT never happened':

Like many DBZ fanfics, this fanfic ignores anything that happened in DBGT, including SSJ4, Golden Oozaru, the Black Star DBs and Bebi.

Elements:

In DBZ some of the races are very obviously linked to elements (Sayia-jins and humans are linked to the Element of earth (and SSJs are additionally linked to Lightning); Nameks are linked to water (which has healing and magic powers in Japanese/Buddhist mythology); Freeza's race, the Icer changelings, are linked to Ice, etc…). FotC expands on this.

Emotions and other deep stuff:

DBZ as an anime was not exactly deep, but there was a good deal of dept in the ways Vegeta and Piccolo (and Buu) went from bad to good and in the way that people such as Gohan, Goten and Trunks have to deal with the loss of family members and other loved ones.  
In FotC I try to stick to this, by not delving too much into emotions, but I won't ignore them either. Goku, for instance, will not proclaim his eternal love for Vegeta (see 'Never without you' a very good fanfic in which this does happen, I don't mind other people writing it that way, but I quite literally can't).  



	2. One last training

the first episode:  
  
- One Last Training -  
  
'Hey, Crowe, slow down on the training, you've already destroyed over half of this planet in the two years we've been here!' the teacher yelled at his young student.  
  
'It's not my fault you had to choose such a tiny planet' Crowe responded as he fired another blast at a nearby rock.  
  
'It was the only planet within a few light years that was uninhabited'  
  
'So? next time pick a planet that is inhabited.'  
  
'My race and I have been responsible for too many innocent death already and I for one refuse to make more victims...'  
  
'Oh, come on.... I need some real training... your moves are getting old for me'  
  
'We will harm not innocents!'  
  
'Who said anything about innocents? King Cold had a base here and the planet traders still operate from there, those guys aren't innocent.'  
  
'I'm sorry, I may have turned away from my race, but what little honour I have left prevents me from desecrating a sanctuary built by my uncle, even if it harbours scum'  
  
'Ok, Fridge, be an asshole if you want....'  
  
'Oh, so I'm an asshole now am I? Ok, let's see how strong you've become.... you and me, sparring, here, now!' Fridge yelled as he moved into a battle stance.  
  
'Sure, if you want a humiliation.....' Crowe replied as he threw off his heavily torn weighted clothing and took to the sky.  
  
Fridge followed him up there and started punching at him, Crowe quickly dodged every one of the blows and answered them with a volley of kicks. Fridge quickly disappeared and reappeared behind Crowe, dodging the kicks and punching Crowe in the back of the head. To his surprise however, Fridge pushed right through his adversary. 'Oh sh...' he yelled as a blast of energy shot form the image of Crowe and smashed into his abdomen, sending him crashing into the last mountain within a few miles. 'Well, that hurt...' he said as he appeared behind the real Crowe and leg swiped him, 'but next time, don't use such an obvious technique.'  
  
'Don't worry,' Crowe replied, 'I didn't.' As he said this a huge spear of ki dropped from the sky and punched right through Fridge's leg. '**** that hurts' Fridge screamed.  
  
'Don't be such a baby, just sleep in the Regen-chamber tonight.'  
  
'While we're on that subject, I'll allow you to train for another hour and then it's time to go to sleep.... I think you're ready for a surprise tomorrow and I want you to be rested.'  
  
'What do you suggest I do for training? I already destroyed the last mountain in this area using you body, remember?'  
  
'How the hell am I supposed to know? Just move the house a few hundred mile to the east and destroy this part of the planet or something....'  
  
Crowe decided this wasn't a bad idea. He crossed his arms with the palms of his hands turned outwards and yelled 'Ki-baburu-ha !' and formed a bubble of ki around the house. "Just move the house he says .. Well he's not the one who has to ****ing move it every time I reduce an area to dust." After flying for a while, carrying the house above him, Crowe saw an area with enough mountains to last him a while. After putting the house down he flew back to the area he had been in before and started firing off blasts of Ki. After he was satisfied with the damage he'd done, Crowe fired one last blast and vaporised the area. "Well, that was fun, now it's time to get some rest and tomorrow I'll get my surprise." 


	3. The Surprise

the second episode: - The Surprise - "Hey Crowe, are you awake?" Fridge yelled at the other room, "get out of bed you lazy bastard! I have a surprise planned for you, if you don't get out of bed now, you won't know what it was!"

"Who are you yelling at?" Crow asked as he came into the house.

"You were outside? I've been yelling my lungs out for about an hour now, why didn't you come in earlier?"

"Look outside" Crowe shrugged with a grin on his face.

Fridge looked out of the window, outside there was nothing but a wasteland of rubble and a few larger rocks in the shapes of letters spelling out 'I rule'.

"So besides, the letters, what's so special? " Fridge asked "...... Wait a second ...... didn't there use to be a bunch of mountains and a plateau here?"

"Well...." Crowe grinned as he held up a hand of rubble. 

"You levelled this entire region in an hour?" 

"Yeah, I tried out some new techniques, not all of them were all that effective though. Did you know that it's possible to focus ki into a beam rather than just a ball?" 

"I did, but I chose not to tell you about it...." 

"Why not?" 

"When you made that beam, you were on the ground. I know this because if you weren't, you probably wouldn't have been alive now." 

"Again: why not?" 

"Because you're a Youcmou-jin and you have hollow bones and a very strong force when it comes to Ki. A beam attack will push you miles away, into the ground or even into space. Especially when you're not wearing weighted clothing."

"Ok, gotcha ..... now give me my surprise" Crowe said eagerly. 

"Very well, sit tight." Fridge said as he walked over to his desk and pressed the Planettrader emblem, causing it to split open and reveal a computer-console with more buttons, levers and displays than Crowe had ever seen before. Then he walked over to a picture of King Cold and his brother-in-law Ice Boss, Fridge's father, in front of a burning planet, both of them doing the 'two finger donkey ears thing' on each other, and revealed even more buttons and displays. 

"What is going on here?" Crowe asked as Fridge moved even more furniture, revealing more equipment.

"Well...." Fridge explained as he flipped the power switch on, "This was once my command ship." 

"Wait a second... Do you mean that...." Crowe started to ask suspiciously. 

"Yes... I used to be a commander in the Planettrade, entire races have become extinct because of me. I am very sorry of this and I will never let it happen again!" 

"Ya.... very interesting and all but I already knew that .... I was going to say: do you mean I've been lugging this place every where while it could fly perfectly well on it's own!! I even moved it to other planets damnit!!" Crowe exclaimed.

"Oh don't whine, you needed the exercise." 

"Fridge, you're a real bastard!"

"Of course, being around you does that to people."

"Oh you're so funny…. Not!" Crowe replied, "But anyway, where are we going?"

"Remember that base you mentioned? We're going to go there next."

"I thought that place was off limits."

"It was when there were people there, but the ship's scouters do not detect anything."

"If there's no one there, then why are we going there?"

"There are training facilities and warehouses there, we may be able to use the food and clothes, as well as the training equipment."

"So we won't be kicking any ass?"

"I'll kick –your- ass if you don't stop whining."

"And I still want to destroy something" Crowe thought as the ship took off,

"Hey Fridge, hold on. Can you stop when we're in orbit?"

"Sure, why?"

As they stopped, Crowe opened the airlock and shot a single blast of Ki at the battered remains of the planet, blowing it apart.

"Holy ****, Crowe why the hell did you do that?"

"Felt like it"

"Seriously Crowe your destructive urges are going to get you, or worse: me, killed one of these days."


	4. A Youcmoujin's Past

The third episode:

-A youcmou-jin's past-

As the Ship was zooming through space, Crowe contemplated his history and what he knew about his race.  
He knew he was a Youcmou-jin and he knew that the Youcmou-jin were a warrior race, born in space instead of on a planet. He knew that at some point in time, his race decided that they needed a planet to live on too, just like all the other races. He knew that his race had taken a planet from another race, the Changelings of Clan Ice, the so called 'Aisu-jin'. However they found that the planet was too cold for them and that taking a planet was pretty easy because they were quite strong compared to other races.  
The Youcmou-jin then enslaved the remaining Aisu-jin and started taking over planets, soon enough they found races willing to buy planets for anything from prison planets to practice targets for new horrible weapons. The Youcmou-jin didn't care about it at all, afterall they were a warrior culture, their only goal was victory in battle and personal strength.   
But Crowe als knew that this eventually led to the downfall of the Youcmou-jin. The victims of the Planettraders, as the Youcmou-jin had started to call themselves, formed and alliance to take back their worlds and to get revenge upon the Planettraders. At the head of this alliance were the two leaders of Clan Ice: King Cold and Ice Boss.  
And he knew that after the Youcmou-jin were defeated, they surrendered, instead of being enslaved by force. Which was a great dishonour. Clan Ice took over the Planettraders, the old slaves stayed slaves only with new masters. The Youcmou-jin pledged to work for the Planettraders and were bound by their battered honour to work for Clan Ice. 

He was only a little of boy of five years old when his father and mother, two prominent members of the Katka-tsume tribe, unceremoniously grabbed him from his nest and stuffed him, along with hundreds of other children, in stasis pods. He himself was supposed to be shot to a distant planet in the north galaxy callek Namek-sei, however before they could launch his pod, his parents were killed. It wasn't untill later that Fridge explained to him what had happened and why.  
After they took over the Planettrade Clan Ice's grudge against the Youcmou-jin had only grown and at the same time, the Youcmou-jin had slowly, but surely started to form and organised rebellion. It was then that the two most ruthless members of Clan Ice decided it was the right time to simply kill all the Youcmou-jin.  
By this time the Youcmou-jin race had grown weak from living on a planet, they were used to living in space, and Clan Ice had grown stronger as it discovered the remarkable third and fourth forms of their race. Killing the entire Youcmou-jin population was a field day for the two 'Icers'. However when Airko and Fridge arrived on the planet the Youcmou-jin had been assigned, Hane-sei, they found the Youcmou-jin fully ready to fight and in fact Youcmou-jin children were being launched in pods to unknown locations.  
Fridge was touched by the way the Youcmou-jin were ready to fight for their ideals even though theywere defeated, enslaved and had no hopes of winning. When Clan Ice had been subjugated they simply let it happen to them and then they schemed their way back to freedom, however the Youcmou-jin had been training and developing new techniques, they were planning to fight for their freedom. Airko, however, was not impressed.  
Fridge and Airko fought their way through the Youcmou-jin to the leaders of each tribe, after they killed the tribal leaders, the rest of the tribe was disorganised and easy to deal with. However when they reached the quarters of the leaders of the Katka-tsume tribe, they found only the bodyguards of the triballeaders and a stasispod containing those bodyguards' son. Airko quickly killed the bodyguards, but as Airko prepared to blast the pod, Fridge stopped him.  
Fridge was not above killing the adult Youcmou-jin, in fact he didn't even considder killing children that fought back as a bad thing. But taking the life of an innocent, unconscious child while his race was out their fighting for his life was where Fridge drew the line. He made decision there and then that he would save this child, which could very well be the last of his race and he would watch over this child and raise it.  
Ofcourse while he was busy deciding this, Airko charged a ball of Ki and was preparing to throw it. Frige quickly slammed his elbow to the back of Airko's head. Airko was in his second form, Fridge was in his fourth, though he hadn't intended to do so, Fridge had torn Airko's head of and send it flying. Fridge knew at that point that he would never be able to return to his familiy again unless he'd blame someone else. So he took the pod and flew to Hane-sei's moon and left the pod there.  
Then he returned to his father, Ice Boss, and his uncle King Cold and told them that the Youcmou-jin had killed Airko. Both Aisu-jin were enraged, but not nearly so as Frieza and Coola, Airko's younger brothers. Together Frieza and Coola formed a giant ball of Ki and thrusted it towards Hane-sei, after which the planet exploded. Unfortunately for Fridge, the moon he had put the pod on was blown away aswell, though it was not destroyed.

Fifty years later, King Cold and Ice Boss confronted Fridge: Airko had survived his decapitation (Note from the writer: remember, Frieza and his kind don't breathe, hence they can survive decapitation for a while because their brains don't die from lack of oxygen.) and had made it off of Hane-sei just in time. Now because Fridge had hit Airko from behind, Airko didn't know it was Fridge who had actually attacked him and that saved Fridge's life.  
However he was still banished from Clan Ice territory for letting the Youcmou-jin get to Airko and for not paying attention enough to see that Airko was still alive. Fridge then made it his life's goal to find that moon that had been blown away.  
He took the direction it had been launched in and set out a search pattern from that. It took him 150 years to finally find the moon, but since then he had been training Crowe. That was eleven years ago. Crowe was now sixteen years old and so strong that Fridge had been forced to reach past his fifth form into a whole new demi-form (some physical change, but not an enirely new form _yet_) past fifth just to keep up with him (note: Fridge is less powerfull than Frieza and Coola, Crowe's powerlevel is about one million).

"Hey Crowe, quit your day-dreaming, we've arrived," Fridge said with a smile on his face.  
"Fridge," Crowe thought, even though he knew Fridge couldn't hear his thoughts, "you may not be my real father, but to me you'll always be my 'dad'."  
As the ship landed, Crowe opened his closet and took his last set of undamaged clothes, a tight body suit made of red fabric, made to be able to cope with Crowe's high speed and energy.  
On it he saw the mark of the Katka-tsume tribe, a black claw with an equally black fire burning around it. The same as the tattoo above his right eye, his last reminder of his real parents.  
He fastened his shoulder length hair in a pony-tail using a ritual clip, a sign of maturity among the youcmou-jin, a present from Fridge when his powerlevel exceded 500.000, and put on his boots.  
"I'm coming, dad," Crowe shouted as he openened the door, "I mean: Fridge," he quickly corrected himself, though he knew Fridge didn't mind.  
As the Ship's airlock linked to the asteroid-base's Crowe considdered how lucky he had been and then looked at Fridge, who was smiling.

Yes, he really was lucky and happy about it too.

* * *

More notes from the writer:

You've probably noticed that this piece was a bit longer than the previous two chapters, this is because the first two chapters are intros.  
Chapter one introduces the style of action used in Flight of Crowe, chapter two makes the reader (that's you) familiar with the way Fridge and Crowe live and it gives good picture of Crowe's strength and attitude.

Also you may have noticed how high Crowe and Fridge start, powerlevel wise. This is because Crowe is going to encounter everyone's favourite Saiya-jins somewhere later on and he needs to be ready to face up to them. Also the 'Icers' are all pretty tough, sending poor Crowe at them with a powerlevel of around 500 would get him killed during the first encounter and since Crowe doesn't have any Dragonballs (yet) that would make it a pretty short boring fanfic, wouldn't it :).

Lastly you may have noticed slight resemblances between Crowe and Goku (and between Crowe and Superman, for that matter). This was done entirely unintentional. However I needed to have Crowe be born at a time when Frieza, Coola and King Cold were still around while still making him the same age as Trunks and Goten (seeing as how DBNK's cast was at that age.). A stasis pod was the obvious answer.  
Originally the Youcmou-jin blew up the Icers' planet and then were kicked off theirs by those same Icers, but I thought the 'Frieza blows up a planet' way of making Crowe an orphan was much mor dramatic and DBZ-ish.


	5. A man in a jar

The fourth episode:

-A man in a jar-

"Don't enter the airlock just yet Crowe," Fridge warned him, "I want to make sure the pressure inside the asteroid isn't too high or too low, so I'm going to open the doors automatically first."  
Crowe waited as Fridge performed the tedious process, though he had hoped that there would be people inside the base so could have some action.  
The fact that the ship's scouters indicated only a very faint powerlevel of 0.01, the equivalent of a botanical garden or a nest of rats, indicated that even there were fighters hidden inside the base they wouldn't be any challenge at all. "Ok, the pressure is ok, I'm opening the door now." Fridge remarked, stirring Crowe from his thoughts.  
Fridge stood next to Crowe and punched in a code on the airlock.  
"I'm Sixteen years old and the guy still uses the kiddy-lock, damnit why does this supposed 'planetnemesis-class superdestroyerstarassaultbase' or whatever the fuck this thing is even have a kiddy-lock?" Crowe thought.

The first door of the airlock opened with a hissing sound, releasing some of the musty, damp air from inside the asteroid, which had remained in there from the pressure-checking procedure, into the room.  
Fridge sniffed it and said: "Damn, I'm glad I don't have to breathe."  
Crowe wasn't happy: Youcmou-jin can breathe any gas that isn't inert and they can hold their breath for days if in the sunlight, but they still need to breathe. Crowe was the first to enter, though this primarily because Fridge shoved him.  
"Hey, there's a pool of blood here," Crowe yelled as he jumped up and looked at his feet, he decided to stay in the air, as this was his last pair of boots and blood was one of the few things that didn't wash off them easily.  
And not at all because the thought of a pool of blood made him qeasy, or so he told himself.  
Fridge bent over and, to Crowe's disgust, dipped a finger into the pool and then tasted the liquid.  
"You can come down now, brave warrior, it's just water with blue algae," Fridge said sarcastically with a big grin on his face.  
"Sheesh, how was I supposed to know? It looks just like the puddle you left when I sent a ki-blast right through your chest last year." "Please don't remind me, that really did hurt a lot," Fridge grumbled while scratching the place Crowe had hit him, remembering how much it had hurt and how proud he had been of Crowe.

As they moved further into the base they arrived at the reason they'd come to the base in the first place: the storage area.  
"Ok Crowe, go look for food while I check out the armoury. And don't break anything!" Fridge ordered.  
"Don't worry, I won't. But I want to eat whatever I find first and you can have the left-overs." Crowe replied.  
"Well, that'll have to do." Fridge sighed as he went into the Armoury and started rummaging through the cabinets.  
He first walked towards the weaponscabinet, not because the weapons would do him any good, but he could tell from the number, state and insignia of the weapons how and why the base was abandoned. He opened a drawer meant to contain scouters, but as he looked inside he saw that it was filled with sheaths of paper and data disks instead.  
As he moved on to the next cabinet, meant to hold blaster he first found more information-storage equipment and print-outs, he was now convinced this place had been used for research, not as a military base. That would explain the strange powerlevel readings he had gotten from this place a few weeks ago. Initially he had thought it was just an assault or something, but when it kept fluctuating in a stable pattern, he knew it was something else.  
The last drawer of the cabinet however there were a few lowpower defensive blasters. They bore the mark of Coola, which would explain why the base had only been abandoned recently: Coola had died over a dozen years ago, along with Frieza and King Cold. However the rest of Clan Ice kept running their parts of the business through middle men. Because of this, the news of their demise was didn't reach the farthest regions until years later. From the look of this place it had been a secret station, so they would've been pretty out of touch with the rest of the universe.

"Fridge! Fridge! Get your ass over here!" Crowe screamed. "Not another 'pool of blood', I hope," Fridge thought as he rushed to the refrigeration unit used to hold the food.  
He found Crowe sitting in the second chamber in a corner, with his arms around his knees. His face had a look of shear terror on it.  
"Crowe... What's wrong?" Fridge said, obviously distressed by his young pupil's reaction. In answer, all that Crowe did was point at a door at the other side of the room.  
Fridge charged a ball of ki into his hand as he opened the door. As he looked in he saw what had upset Crowe: stasis pods, four rows of five. However most of them were damaged, containing the rotting corpses of formerly living people. Fridge realised that Crowe had never seen a corpse before, he had seen people dieing, heck he'd even killed a few in self defence. But then the corpses had always been disintergrated by the blasts that killed them. These corpses however were not disintergrated ... and the smell was horrible.  
Fridge decided to try and convince Crowe to help him investigate the room. As he walked back into the room Crowe was in he saw Crowe was already standing, though he was still a bit unbalanced.  
"Crowe, are you alright again?" Fridge asked carefully.  
"Yeah, I'll be alright, but those guys ... they're dead, aren't they?" Crowe replied   
Fridge nodded and made a questionary gesture to ask whether Crowe was ready to go back in, Crowe nodded back and followed Fridge back in.

As Crowe looked around he quickly saw another pod, standing in an alcove next to the door. Wires ran from the twenty other pods to this one. The pod had a powergauge which was almost on empty.  
"I think I know what happened here," Fridge said while rubbing his chin, "These twenty pods were intended to be able revert power in order to run into power the pod in the alcove and to run power into it's occupier. However the pods have a design flaw: they're not powered properly. They only have enough power for one pod."  
"Now you see in the last twenty days, the ship's scouters have picked up twenty small surges in ki coming from this place, it seems that when the central pod runs out of power, another pod shares it's energy with the central pod, but the central pod needs much more than the twenty other ones can produces alone. The batteries simply ran out and the occupiers were shocked awake and died immediately. When this happened, the main pod just switched to another pod. Each pod apparently only provided enough for one day. And now the central pod is running out too." Fridge continued.  
"So let's wake him up!" Crowe yelled.  
"Alright, we will," Fridge replied frankly.  
Crowe moved to the pod's console and entered a code telling the computer to wake the man up. The computer replied it would take half an hour. Crowe sat down next to Fridge, who had taken a binder from a cabinet and was reading up on the research that had been done by the base's occupiers.  
"Tell me something, Crowe" Fridge said, not looking up from the binder.  
"Yes?"  
"Do you still want to eat everything you find?" Fridge said, looking up with a grin.

* * *

And that's as good a place as any to cut this episode off. Ok, well actually I planned to end this episode with that remark a week ago.

Yes, indeed it is true: I got a review. (that rhymes) Thank you Rabid Pink Bunny, let's hope you're the first, but not the last (Hint to the other readers).

As some of you may have noticed that this whole 'abandoned base with stasis pods thing' was inspired by the 'Aliens' series. I willingly admit this: I was watching Aliens 2 while making a draft for this specific story. Even though the basics were already set.

Anyways, Aren't you just dieing to know who the man in the pod is? Aren't you just dieing to find out what the research conducted in the base was? Aren't you just dieing to find out whether Crowe will eat what he found? You're not dieing? Well then read the next episode too.

* * *


	6. Enter: Kabbats

the fifth episode 

- Enter: Kabbats - 

"Well, thirty seconds to go," Fridge muttered as the timer hit that number, "Be ready to destroy whatever the hell is in there if it turns out it isn't friendly."  
"If it isn't friendly, it's as good as dead," Crowe replied as he charged a ball of ki into each hand and aimed it at the pod.

With a combination of creaking and hissing noises, the pod's door started opening, the person inside though still didn't show much of a powerlevel. Both Crowe and Fridge wondered whether it was still alive. Twenty seconds later, their question was answered: the Pod opened and from it stepped a man. He was large and muscular. He had a moustache and short, spiky hair, both black. His most prominent features though were the scars on his face and the fact that half his lower jaw was made of metal and he also had a metal tail. The man first looked at the stasis pods in the middle of the room and then looked to the side, at Fridge and Crowe. As he looked closer, a mixture of fear and joy came over his face and he dropped to the ground, kneeling down.  
"My General Fridge, I am honoured to meet you again and pledge my allegiance to you once more." The strange figure said.  
"Oh shit, Kabbats, is it really you?" Fridge exclaimed with a startled, though not frightened, look on his face, "How did you escape Frieza's wrath?" "Technically, I didn't. You forget, my general, that it was my own son, Nappa, who betrayed our resistance to you cousin. When he did so he begged Frieza to let me and prince Vegeta live as well. Frieza did not object, afterall none of us could resist Frieza without the rest of our race. Thus, when Frieza destroyed planet Vegeta, he spared me too," Kabbats explained, "But I couldn't stand to be around my treacherous son anymore, he threw away his pride and his honour, all because he was afraid that Frieza might find out we were planning to overthrow him. I left, voluntarily though not without meeting resistance, and I was wounded in the process. Then Coola found me. His scientists took me in, but I was too wounded to survive. So they turned me into this: An Artificial Saiya-jin."  
"What's a Saiya-jin?" Crowe asked, "and, for that matter what's an Artificial Saiya-jin?" "The Saiya-jin are, or were, a people from the North galaxy. We are true warriors and our honour and pride are more important to us than anything else. As for an Artificial Saiya-jin, that means they pretty much replaced every part of my body that they could replace without killing me with something mechanical," Kabbats explained.  
"But what did Coola do to you after that?" Fridge demanded.  
"Well, first I was just another one of his grunts. I cleared planets for him. Coola is much more honorable than his brother though, or atleast not as cruel. He never sends an overpowering force to a planet, he always makes sure both sides are evenly matched. So I decided tohat working for him would be a good way to repay my debt. Untill... Kakarott came and killed Frieza. He became a Super Saiya-jin in the process." Kabbats answered.  
"A Super Saiya-jin? That was supposed to be our trumphcard against Frieza and the rest of the Planettrade. And who is this Kakarott? I don't think I've ever met him." Fridge said in awe.  
"Kakarott is Bardock's son and he isn't the only Super Saiya-jin either. Prince Vegeta also became one and so did the sons of Kakarott and Prince Vegeta. My son, Nappa betrayed the secret of the Super Saiya-jin to Frieza. When Kakarott killed Frieza, Coola wanted revenge, so he sent me to this place and the scientists started working on making me an Artificial Super Saiya-jin." Kabbats replied. "Did it work, did they succeed?" Crowe asked. Kabbats gestured, telling them to keep looking at him. Both of them did. Kabbats moved into a standard 'powerup' stance and braced himself. He screamed and squeezed his fists as the power inside him rose to a new hight. His eyes, formerly black in black, became green in black, his hair became golden, save for those that were synthetic. His muscles bulged. A golden aura blasted arround him. He stopped and the aura subsided, his golden hair and muscles stayed in their new form. "Yeah, I guess so," Kabbats shrugged.

Kabbats' hair turned black again and his muscles became smaller, "are we done with the third degree questioning now?" he asked.  
"No, I actually do still have a question," Fridge said, "if you know that Coola is dead, why are you still here?"  
"The Scientists needed me to power their life pods ... it didn't work though, they connected the wires the wrong way. Instead of my pod feeding theirs, their pod fed mine ... and me." Kabbats explained.  
"I have a question too," Crowe mumbled.  
"And what would that question be, young warrior?" Kabbats said with a smile.  
"What the fuck do you think this is? A nude beach?" Crowe yelled, talking about Kabbats' lack of clothes.  
"Hehe, General I like your pupil's style." Kabbats laughed as he beckoned them to follow him.

After following Kabbats into the armoury, they arrived at a locker full of clothes and armour.  
Kabbats quickly found a Black body suit and a white armour with yellow patches (a normal Saiya-jin armour). He got a pair of boots and and a pair of gloves from a footlocker and put them on. He looked in a mirror, but the look on his face seemed to say he was still missing something. His expression changed as he reached into another footlocker. From it he took a black bandana and put it on his head.[br] "There, now I'm dressed, time to get you set up properly," Kabbats said to Crowe. Again the Youcmou-jin and his mentor followed Kabbats through a series of doors with coded locks untill they came into a room with nothing more than a cilinder and a control panel.[br] "Watch this," Kabbats told them as he fiddled with the controls. As Kabbats pressed the final button, the cilinder rose up with steam and a hissing sound. It revealed an armour, not entirely dissimilar to Kabbats', but not exactly the same either: Where Kabbats' armour was white, this armour was black and where Kabbats' armour was yellow, this armour was red. It's shoulderpads were straight on top an curved at the bottom, instead of being straight at the bottom and curved on top, like Kabbats' pads. It had included boots that were knee-high in front, but ended just below the knees in the back and that were made of the same black material as the main armor. Also include were gauntlets (think of the type of wrist-protectors that skaters wear) made of the black material with tiny red pads for the parts of the fingers closest to the hand. On the right side of the chest there was a red cirlce with an emblem in it that Crowe knew all too well: it was the same burnin claw thar graced the space above his right eye: the symbol of his clan.  
"What the fuck?" Crowe yelled, his face a mixture of awe, fear and surprise on his face.

* * *

What the fuck indeed. What is this strange armour that looks like it was made by the Youcmou-jin? Who is this new Artificial Saiya-jin? If Nappa only begged for the lives of Vegeta and Kabbats, then how did Radditz survive? And possibly the most pressing matter of all: Will Crowe ever eat what he found?   
The answer to atleast some of these questions can be found in the next episode of TFoC. And one of them won't so I'll answer it now: Radditz survived because of Bardock: When Bardock told Frieza that he had a vision that his son would become a Super Saiya-jin, Frieza assumed Bardock meant Radditz. So rather than killing Radditz, Frieza decided to take him in and have him around, just to spite Bardock and tempt fate. That's how Raddtitz survived.

In case anyone is wondering: Kabbats (Kabatsu) is derived from cabbach. I thought it would be a good name for the father of a guy called 'lettuce'. (sorta the same way that Bardock (which is a root) is the perfect name for the father of two children called 'carrot' and 'raddish' (both roots too). One thing is sure: Akira Toriyama wasn't goofing off when he made up his names.)  



	7. A father's pride

The sixth episode:

-A father's pride-

"That armour looks great!" Crowe exclaimed, "But where did you get it?"  
"It's a very old armour, it's been cleaned up a little and we had to patch a few holes, but otherwise it's still exactly like the original," Kabbats said, "It was issued to us by lord Ice Boss himself, we were to try and discover what material it's made of and we were to see if we could replicate it."  
"That's interesting," Fridge commented, "Did you succeed?"  
"No. We _do_ know what it is, but we can't replicate it... It's Hanesium, a metal that was only found on Hane-sei..."Kabbats explained.  
"...Which was destroyed." Fridge added.  
"Yes. So we couldn't replicate it." Kabbats continued his explanation, "The abilities of this metal are amazing: It resists high pressures and extreme heat, it softens punches very well and is very light-weight. All-in-all, it allows it's wearer to move quickly, take a beating and use powerfull attacks without having to cool down to prevent getting overheated."  
"So it's perfect for a Youcmou-jin?" Crowe wondered.  
"Yes, exactly, that's why I showed it to you instead of wearing it myself... Well... that and the fact it's too small for me." Kabbats concluded his explanation.  
"Well, this has all been fascinating, and I am very happy to see you again Kabbats, but I think it's time we got our gear together and moved on," Fridge said, "You're welcome to join us Kabbats, but we don't have any spare rooms on the ship so you'll have to sleep on the couch."  
"That won't be a problem Fridge, I don't sleep, I only recharge and I do that sitting." Kabbats replied. "Great! It'll be cool to have someone to talk to, besides Fridge, for a change!" Crowe cheered.  
Fridge made a few gestures indicating he wanted Crowe to put on the armour and Kabbats to help him carry food to the ship.

  
He remembered the last time he'd seen his father in a similat armour.  
It was during the annual (based on one Hane-sei year, about 5.2 earth years) festival that the planettraders organised to celebrate the 'liberation' of the known universe.  
It always involved a mass of people from all over the universe who came to vacation on Hane-sei. It usually mean that Youcmou-jin families were forced out of their homes to make room for people coming to see the festival.  
A big part of the festival was the Gladiatorial Games, a competition to select which tribe would be allowed to live in the more free quarters closest to the local Planettrader palace. Living in there was an honour and a privilege and this meant relatively great freedom for the people living there. Winning the games meant an appointment as bodyguard of the tribe's leader and the extra freedoms this brought with it. Defeat meant simply death or, if the opponent was merciless, severe maiming.

Crowe remembered so well, even though he was only four years old at the time, because his father and older brother had been selected to fight, along with five others, to fight for the Katka-tsume.  
The colloseum was huge and spectacular on the outside and from the seats, but in the inner catacombs, the beauty was nowhere to be seen. Foul odours were abundant and filth covered the walls and floor. None of this, however mattered to Falco of the Katka-tsume tribe. he had stood there, his armour polished until is was speckles, save for the boots which had obviously also been polished but were now covered in the dirt and blood that covered the catacombs' floors.  
He had stood there, knowing his eldest son had already died and knowing that, in five years, his youngest son would have to fight too... And still none of it mattered to Falco, for Falco was a Youcmou-jin and the Joucmou-jin were warriors, born to fight, born to die in battle, born to grow strong and powerful for the sake of the tribe.  
As he stood there, he knew what he would have to face in the next match, the finals: Peeking, the uncontested champion of the Games and the most merciless of all the warriors who had ever entered the Games.  
However Falco was not afraid, he knew he could take Peeking, because Peeking was too influenced by the planettraders. Peeking relied on brute strength: something most, if not all, other Youcmou-jin lacked. But Falco, he relied on his speed and agility, traits that are the trademark of the Youcmou-jin race.  
Falco knew that if the planettraders would bother to ship one of their bulky 'scanner' devices to scan their 'powerlevels', he would be rated well above Peeking.  
Still, this only meant he had a chance to defeat Peeking, it was in no way a certainty. If Peeking managed to land a single, good, blow hard enough to knock Falco down for even a second, his chances would be grim.

As Falco stepped into the ring, he saw Peeking was already there, getting the crowd to cheer for him. The Youcmou-jin in the lower levels, looking at the ring through the grates, however boo-ed him, even those of his own tribe. Peeking was a collaborator and a traitor and it was suspected his strength did not come from mere training. This made him unpopular with all Youcmou-jin.  
As he sized up his opponent, Falco heard the gate behind him close. The announcer asked for attention and announced the fight: "Ladies, Gentlemen and assorted others, today on the last day of the Games, we have the two finalists fighting each other: on the north side, the reigning champion, the favourite for four straight years: Peeking of the Net-Hane Tribe! On the South side the challenger, Warrior of the Katka-tsume tribe and favourite of the Youmou-jin, Falco! Now let's get ready for some serious fighting!"  
As soon as this was said the two Youcmou-jin stood in their battle stance. Peeking was the first to move when he decided to charge right for Falco. Falco dodged him easily and tripped him. Cries of disapproval came from the crowd as Peeking's fell down flat on his face.  
He didn't stay down however, but jumped up and kicked swiftly in Falco's direction, missing him by a hair. Falco followed suit with his own series of kicks. Unfortunately all of his kicks hit with little effect. Falco realised that if he wanted to do any significant harm to Peeking he needed a weapon. Looking around quickly he saw a sword nearby. He rushed for it, but by the time he got to it, Peeking had already picked up a spear and thrown it at him. It pierced his leg and went into the ground, pinning him down with the sword only barely within his grasp. Falco clenched the sword and turned around as much as he could. He saw Peeking slowly walking towards him, a huge sledgehammer in his hands. Falco hesitated for a second, but then decided he had no other option. He swung the sword quickly and cut off his own leg right above where the spear had pierced him. The crowd cheered at the magnificent show of savageness and ferociousness. Seeing Falco's act, Peeking picked up the pace, swung his hammer and... dropped to the ground as he missed Falco and Falco slashed open his throat.  
A few hours later, Falco woke up in a regeneration tank, his leg partially restored. On the outside of the tank he could see his wife and his four year old child, Crowe, standing there. Crowe looked back at him.  
Crowe looked back at him and saw the pride in his father's eyes. As Crowe remembered that pride, something strange came over him. He saw a bright light and felt warmth all around.

Seconds before that, as Fridge and Kabbats carried the last crate into the ship, an alarm sounded at the main console. Both ran towards it. As they looked at the console they saw the message: 'Extreme ki build-up detected, discharge imminent'.  
"Crowe! Get out of.." Fridge yelled too late. Behind him the base exploded as a number of beams hit it, the ship automatically closed the hatch and took off.  
"Kami, this is horrible!" Kabbats whispered in a distraught tone.

* * *

Ok, are you curious yet? I'm sure you want to see the next episode, right? Well you're in luck then because it's almost done.

A few notes on this episode:

Peeking's name is a pun (well all names in DBZ and in FoC are puns, but Peeking is a double one). You see: the bird that the name 'Peeking' refers to is a duck ... get it? Get it? -_-* o-kay....

Finishing this episode took me over two months, this is not my record however. The very first episode, which is only 600 words in size, took me almost a year to 'perfect' into the episode it is at the moment. On the other hand, episode 5, with around 1400 words, was written over a period of approximately four hours. The reason why it took me so long this time was a combination of the holidays and the fact that I originally wrote episode 6 (this one) and episode 7 (the next one, soon to be complete) as a single +/- 2000 word episode. I decided however, to split it up into two parts and add a little detail to each of these parts. 


	8. A wake up call

The Seventh episode:

-A wake up call-

After a few seconds, the ship was hailed. On the screen a familiar face appeared.  
"Hello there, children," A voice spoke through the speaker.  
"Ice Boss!" Fridge and Kabbats yelled in unison.  
"Indeed," the changeling replied, "So, my son, have I punished you enough now? Taking away your son as you almost took my succesor? Are you ready to come back into the family and take your rightful place as a planettrader lord? I'll even grant your monkey amnesty if you come back."  
"Oh come on father, I know you don't truely want me back, family never meant anything to you. I'm just a thing to you. I'm a thorn in you side and you want to yank me out. Wether you simply discard me or keep me to remind others how you deal with thorns is of no importance to you." Fridge replied bitterly.  
"Ah my son, you know me so well...." Iceboss smirked as he shut down the comm signal.  
"Do you notice how he calls me son? A son in our culture is a failed succesor, related to his parents only by blood not by heritage. I don't care though, he was a 'father' long before he ever started calling me son," Fridge explained sadly, "Farewell Kabbats, it was nice to know you, but my father is powering up his weapon again, if they can destroy that asteroid, we don't have a chance."  
As the artificial Saiya-jin and his former general prepared for the impact, something about the burning ruins of the asteroid caught their attention.

Just as the weapon on Iceboss's ship started glowing, indicating they could fire any second now, an explosion was visible on the outside of the burning asteroid.  
The weapon fired a bright beam of energy straight for the ship.  
"This is it, it's too late to do anything now!" Kabbats exclaimed as the flash of the beam brightened the windows of the ship.  
Then, all of a sudden, another explosion appeared on the asteroid and from it a jet of fire streamed in front of the ship, right between the ship and the beam.  
The tip of the stream of fire hit the head of the energy-beam, a massive explosion was the result.  
When the flash of the explosion faded and the smoke cleared, something was floating in space at the point where the explosion had occured.  
Startled as he was, Fridge had a few minor problems targetting the ship's sensors, but when he finally succeeded the shock only grew.  
"It's..!" Fridge yelled as he looked at the screen.

In space, the object moved.  
Crowe relaxed the blocking stance he had taken to deflect the energy beam. The strain of neutralising two of these powerful blasts had almost been too much on him, but he had managed to pull through.  
"Iceboss! Illsuited father to my mentor! Destroyer of my people! You have two hours to prepare yourself and after that I will destroy you!" Crowe yelled across the void of space certain that Iceboss would hear him.  
Just as he had expected, Iceboss' ship retreated quickly, setting course for the nearest Planettrader base.  
Crowe quickly set course for the ship he had saved, to meet up with Fridge and Kabbats, who he knew had also heard him.

"Crowe, you fool! You should have destroyed them immediatly!" Kabbats scolded him as he reentered the ship.  
"I would have, but after using the Ki-bubble technique twice, it's a surprise I'm eve able to stand without being held up," Crowe explained himself, "I was bluffing. I know that the three of us will probably be able to take them on, or at the very least we will be able to get far enough away from here before they'd realise we weren't going after them." "No!" Fridge suddenly stated after considdering the last part of what Crowe had said, "this must end here and now. If we run now, we'll never have this great an opportunity again and besides they'll hunt you down specifically after this. Before this whole chain of events, they would've left you alone if you no longer travelled with me, but now you're considdered and official thorn in their side." "Then a thorn they considder me and a thorn I will be..." Crowe said with resolve.

* * *

In case anyone is interested in this: Crowe can speak in space, even though there is only vacuum in space, because his race is originally from space. How they do it exactly I don't know, they never told me. ^_^

This episode was a shorty compared to the previous few episodes, but that's because it was originally intended to be part of episode 6. However that made episode 6 very long and maybe a bit too 'full of events'. So I decided to cut it in half (sorta) at a point of suspense. 


End file.
